Foxtel snaps up Showtime five months after Austar takeover

Foxtel’s dominance of the Australian subscription TV market looks set to grow after it agreed to take control of the Showtime movie channels.

Foxtel completed its takeover of Austar in May.

The deal revealed tonight is with Showtime’s owner Premium Movie Partnership whose shareholders included Sony Pictures, Universal, Paramount and the News Corp-owned 20th Century Fox. News Corp is currently a 25% owner of Foxtel and is aiming to increase this to 50% through its offer to buy Consolidated Media Holdings from shareholders including majority owner James Packer.

Foxtel said the deal was to acquire “certain assets of the PMP business”. It said: “The current PMP channels will be directly produced and managed by Foxtel. The majority of current PMP staff will be offered positions at Foxtel.” A spokesman told Mumbrella that Showtime staff would “eventually” relocate relocating from their headquarters at Moore Park in Sydney to Foxtel’s base on the other side of the city at Macquarie Park.